For three consecutive days, none of the seven people who went out to look for work had any success.
Logically speaking, it should be quite easy for someone with a military background like them to get a position in an official patrol or security team at the base.
When they are temporarily stationed at a base, village, or town on missions, it is usually very easy for them to find temporary work. In fact, the person in charge will often come to them without them even having to look for it, hoping that they can help point out security vulnerabilities or train their security personnel.
In many places, the so-called security teams are actually makeshift groups, with perhaps not a single person from a regular military background, or even a police officer, in the entire team. They might be able to handle minor skirmishes, but when faced with small to medium-sized armed groups, they are completely helpless and can only passively endure the attacks.
Even among the guard teams formed by people from legitimate military backgrounds, there are very few, if any, stronger than the 532nd Squad.
Therefore, whenever they encounter regular soldiers, or even special forces, like the 532nd Squad, the leaders are overjoyed. They always try their best to invite them to stay at the base for a few more days. The way the Liancheng base treats them, almost like spies, is unprecedented.
This solidified their suspicions about the Liancheng base.
They didn't come away empty-handed during these three days. They discovered several "forbidden areas" that were hidden away and looked ordinary from the outside, but once you got close, you would find that they were heavily guarded.
Moreover, the entire base is guarded by sentry posts every few hundred meters, with patrols every half hour. The level of security is comparable to that of a heavily fortified military site, which inevitably makes one suspect that the Liancheng base has some ulterior motive.
"Damn, this place is so heavily guarded that not even a fly can get in. Where are we even supposed to start?"
Zhao Rui was the most impatient of them all. He kept running into obstacles when looking for a job. Not to mention the patrol team and security team at the Liancheng base, even when he went for a job interview today to work as a bricklayer, he was rejected by the person in charge because they had enough manpower.
Even the wall-building project didn't need his criticism, and coupled with the fact that he had been careful in everything he did these past few days, the tension finally broke down, and he started complaining at the dinner table.
“If it weren’t for this, we wouldn’t be able to determine the problem with the Liancheng base. Be patient; the fox will eventually slip up.” “Brother, I joined a supply-gathering team today. Why don’t you come with me tomorrow? Haha.” Gu Yanlin patted Zhao Rui’s shoulder reassuringly. He understood this sense of frustration. A few days ago, his job search had been equally unsuccessful; the canteen, the porter, and even bricklayers all refused him. This afternoon, after failing his interview, he came back for lunch and asked Gu Yanzhi for a pack of cigarettes before leaving. That pack proved useful this evening; he successfully befriended the leader of a supply-gathering team. Besides job hunting, he had also been observing the people coming and going from the Liancheng base. He observed that the team leader was a heavy smoker, but due to limited resources, he could only afford one cigarette a day. Gu Yanlin, catering to his tastes, successfully won him over with a pack of cigarettes considered excellent even before the apocalypse.
Gu Yanlin's request was simply that he wanted to join the resource gathering team to collect supplies, and the other party agreed without hesitation. He was also envious of Gu Yanlin's formidable combat abilities.
Given the value of this pack of cigarettes, Gu Yanlin believed that even if he were to add another person at the last minute, the other party would readily agree.
Of course, Gu Yanlin didn't choose this person solely because he was easy to bribe. According to Gu Yanlin's observations, although this man was only one of several hundred collection team leaders at the Liancheng base, he seemed to have some connection with a powerful figure within the base. According to Liancheng base regulations, personnel collecting supplies outside the base were required to hand over 5% of the supplies as management fees. However, Gu Yanlin discovered that this man never seemed to hand over the full amount, and Gu Yanlin had bumped into him several times in the villa area.
The residents of the villa area are all wealthy and powerful, so this person obviously doesn't live here. Therefore, Gu Yanlin can't think of any other reason why he frequently comes to the villa area except that he has a relationship with the people in the villa area.
Although their team lived in a villa area, the locals were very wary of them and wouldn't say a word to them. Every time they encountered them, they would hurry past.
The team pretended to be lost and asked for directions. The passersby were wary and quickly ran away after pointing in the right direction.
It's unrealistic to try to gather information from inside the villa area, so we have to find another way.
Gu Yanlin and Zhao Rui's destinations have been decided, but the remaining five members of Team 532 do not yet have suitable jobs.
Chu Guodong waved his hand and decided that since they couldn't integrate into the base, they would try another approach: they would also go outside to collect supplies.
The so-called supply search teams are actually small groups formed by relatively capable individuals. They are not affiliated with the government and are spontaneous civilian organizations.
Therefore, when Liancheng Base collects management fees, it applies the same standard to both individual resource collectors and resource collection teams.
In the Lotus City base, any resource gatherer with even a modicum of skill belongs to a small team. Only a small number of individuals who are truly incompetent or have offended others remain as independent gatherers.
The specific rules for resource allocation within the collection team are not governed by the official authorities at the Liancheng base. They only verify the resources you bring into the base that day, and regardless of the amount, they take 5%.
From a certain perspective, the rules of the Liancheng base can be considered fair.
Under this mechanism, the formation of a supplies collection team does not require reporting to the base authorities; they only need to hand over the supplies when they bring them into the base the next day.
Whether it's one person handing over all the money or everyone handing over a small portion, the official Liancheng base doesn't care.
This practice by the base also means that if someone in the gathering team takes supplies and leaves the base without handing them over, they will not be protected by the authorities, and the team will have to suffer the consequences.
As for Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao, they are not within the scope of Chu Guodong's arrangements. They are merely partners, and as long as they do not disrupt each other's plans, the rest is up to Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao.
Gu Yanzhi's leg has improved a lot after three days of rehabilitation. Now she can walk normally without any major problems. However, she can't walk for too long each day and has to rest every half hour.
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao decided to use Gu Yanzhi's leg injury as an excuse to go to the local hospital tomorrow. If the Liancheng base was indeed conducting human experiments, then there must be doctors supporting it behind the scenes.
It's unclear whether doctors who conduct human experiments are ever seen at hospitals. Going there to try your luck might yield some useful clues.
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